2010-07-31

Getting things done

Filed under: Family,Games,Programming,Writing — D. Moonfire @ 21:51

One of the writers over at the Nobel Pen started asking me questions about DocBook 5, mainly because I’m doing so much with the `mfgames-writing-python` toolchain. It was nice being a somewhat knowledgeable source for stuff, but they were doing relatively simple stuff and it didn’t really push the limits of my skills. Still, nice to be considered. Speaking of the toolchain, it is moving around quite nicely. I got it so it will be idempotent while converting between Creole and DocBook formats. I also made it easy to create converters for DocBook and other text-based formats, like Markdown. It also now converts subject terms into DokuWiki tags, something I use fairly heavily.

Beyond the programming and working on a commission, I’ve just been doing “life” thing. Fluffy’s car broke down and we had to return it to get it fixed right. They are keeping it over a few days, so we are down to one car again. *sigh* At least it isn’t anything really critical.

I also got a chance to play the demo for Revenge of the Titans, a RTS tower defense game. I actually liked it; I normally like TD games but I haven’t really warmed up to RTS games. This one… I could enjoy. They have a special right now, 50% off ($13) for pre-ordering and I decided to pick it up. Amazing how many fun games you can get for under $20.

2010-07-19

A Good Weekend

Filed under: Games,Programming,Writing — D. Moonfire @ 17:59

Pretty good weekend, I would have to say. And it wasn’t doing everything I planned on doing. I played a lot of games, wrote a good chapter, and rewrote part of my writing tool chain. Oh, and cleaned the house.

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2010-05-13

I love indies

Filed under: Games — D. Moonfire @ 00:47

One of the communities I started to get into it is indie game programmers. Yeah, I can’t say I’m very good at it, but I still look up to them. Recently, there was a Humble pack of games where a bunch of designers set out their games in a “pay as much as you want” schedule with a portion of the proceeds going to EFF and Child’s Play. I happen to agree with both of those charities.

So, people could pay whatever they want and get 5 games. Yes, they weren’t the highly polished games that cost $60 for a few hours of entertainment, but simpler games where the money went directly to the people who wrote it. Much like indie authors, the other group I’m interesting it. Amazingly, when you have the ability to get 5 games for $1 (if you wish), they managed to raise 1.1 million dollars. People paid an average of $8 to 14 dollars for the games but people kept doing it. Given my charitable nature, I gave a bit over that but I happen to feel strongly about it.

When they hit the $1 M point, four of the game designers decided to open-source their code. Which is something squee-worthy since I love people who share what they did. I noticed a few hours later, there were already github repositories to “fix” the one game released so far. (I found out because I want 64-bit versions of the games since that is what I run.) Which is a different and just as interesting part of the community. People are willing to spend a few hours to clean up code, make it work smoother, and even fix bugs simply because they enjoy the game and want to help.

I don’t know many communities that do that.

Makes me want to program some more… but I have chapters to write before I sleep.

2010-03-07

Support your indy game developers

Filed under: Games — D. Moonfire @ 15:50

I’m a wannabe game writer. Not to say I can’t, but I don’t even focus enough to actually finish a game besides CuteGod (which still needs work). I never really created anything slick or polished, that final step for making a “real” game instead of throwing something up. However, there are a lot of fantastic little games out there. Most of them are pretty cheap (under $20), give a lot of hours of fun, and don’t need the greatest of all hardware to even show the introduction. And, this weekend, there are a few specials going on that I enjoyed.

http://www.indiestrategygames.com/

This is three games plus expansions. The first, Gratuitous Space Battles (GSB) is this cute little game where you make your ships, set it up, and watch them blow each other up. Now, that might not excite a lot of people, but I love the creator bits of 4X games and this doesn’t require hundreds of hours of time to get working. Just set up the battles and go. And, it kind of makes me feel like Ender. There is also Solium Infernum and AI War in there. I haven’t gotten to them, but they look like a lot of fun. Basically, I bought the back to find something new and to buy GSB.

The entire pack is $50 but I think I’m going to get my money’s worth on it (under $1/hour). I believe the special ends Monday.

http://www.direct2drive.com/2/9236/product/Buy-Best-of-Indie-Bundle-Vol.-3-Download

This is a bigger game pack for only $30. It has all the winners and finalists of the Independent Game Festival.

  • World of Goo: I already own this game and absolutely love it. The goos make such adorable sounds. Hrm, reminds me, I need to ask about the profanity pack I ordered.
  • Puzzlegeddon
  • Gish
  • The Maw
  • Braid: Played this for an answer. It has some really neat puzzles, a bit on the hard part for me, but the “rewind time” is great for undoing mistakes.
  • Cogs
  • Aaaaa!
  • Osmos
  • Machinarium: This is a click puzzle adventure but it looks absolutely gorgeous.
  • Crayon Physics Deluxe: I already reviewed this game, it is still great.

I like supporting indie game writers. Much like I support people who show up at GenCon to sell their books. Yes, most of them are POD or not through the classical distribution channels, but it doesn’t mean they poured less of their heart into it. Yeah, they might not be as fancy or smooth as the $60 game, but I think they can be just as much fun. Plus, for me, it is the fact I’m supporting someone who writes in their spare time, after doing their full-time jobs in hope that they’ll make it big. Because… I hope to be that person in my own time.

2010-02-25

Thoughts on hacking RPG’s

Filed under: Games — D. Moonfire @ 23:57

This last weekend, two friends from Illinois (Uteck and Bouncy) came to visit. I miss them a lot, mainly because there are aspects of my life that I haven’t found a friend locally. In Uteck’s case, we happen to enjoy running games and tweaking RPG’s to make them fit. He is also a Linux geek like me and we enjoy playing with programs in hopes they make our game running experience better.

We were in Half-Price Books, one of our favorite places, while Bouncy ran from shelf to shelf with child-like glee. I naturally had to mention that Anton Strout and Mark Henry had two–no doubt brilliant–books coming out this week (buy plug) but we would have to go to a non-used bookstore to get them.

But, we got to talking about RPG’s. And, more importantly, designing or taking existing systems and make them work for our styles of play.

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2009-12-24

Castle Age

Filed under: Games,Reviews — D. Moonfire @ 19:19

I’m pretty much done with Castle Age over on Facebook. The game ended up being a nice distraction for a month or so, but eventually the lack of variance (grinding) and overwhelming advertising overcame my interest in the game. In the last week or so, I was just playing for the sake of playing the game.

So, I gave up on the game.

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2009-11-30

Producing verses Consuming

Filed under: Games,Writing — D. Moonfire @ 00:24

There is a reason I don’t play most computer games after a few weeks. Yeah, I’ll finish a long-running RPG game to finish it, but casual games seem to only interest me for a few days or weeks before I get this strange feeling that I’m wasting my life playing them. Right now, it’s Castle Age on Facebook; a lovely, fun game that I know doesn’t have the depth to keep me interested for years, but it is enough for a distraction while working on my paper. The more I slog through the words, the more I need little breaks of mindless implied violence.

When I’m watching TV, playing games, or even reading a book, I keep thinking I’m wasting my life just doing them instead of creating something. One reason I bring my notebook just about everywhere (even places like business lunches). It gets me anxious since I like, no I’d have to say love, making things. I like writing programs and stories, creating something for an RPG game, or even just making up a shared fiction with someone (wrote two novel length books from email “campaigns”).

But, I don’t get that when I work on college homework. I don’t feel like I’m creating anything. I’m just digesting and writing out papers, but it really doesn’t… make anything at the this level. Probably one reason I’m so anxious for it to be over. I want to make something, I want to feel the keys beneath my finger and have those age-old whining about “I can’t create anything” while writing. (I am so emo.)

I wrote a short story last week, first in a while. Took me a few days, but I got it out. I posted it on the forum that I normally post these stories and… nothing. I wondered if I somehow completely lost the ability to write, but after posted it in a few more places, I started getting comments. I love comments. Almost as much as fan art, but it reminded me of that little thrill of seeing someone else enjoy something I created.

I won’t answer the game writing verses novel question any time soon, but I know that I’m anxious to get to creating things once I finish my college classes. Like other major life decisions, I find myself counting the days.

Sadly, while clicking on the quest button in Castle Age.

2009-11-25

Spore Island on Facebook

Filed under: Games,Reviews — D. Moonfire @ 22:06

Occasionally, I find a game on Facebook that looks interesting, but I usually drifted after 3-5 days. Spore Island happens to be one of them. I like the idea of Spore, creating your own creatures and seeing them survive, but Spore Island really didn’t appeal to me past a few days.

Facebook games pretty much have the feel to them. Between the gameplay, there is that near constant drone of “bring more players into the game!” Some of them are a little better than others, while others are just terrible at it. Spore Islands goes one additional step. Most of the customizations in the game, you can never get unless you hand cold hard cash over to them. You use DNA points to “improve” your character. Well, not really improve. You can shift around scores to try getting a higher point value, but ultimately, there is no improvement in the game. Just shifting over time as supposedly your friends do the same. Because everyone likes to just beat on their friends endlessly. You can’t ever get more than 12 DNA (one every two hours) and most of the cosmetic benefits cost 15 DNA or more. So, if you want something nice, you have no choice but to pay for it.

There are very little benefits of friends. The game gives a higher chance of sparkles (bonus points) on the stage based on the number of friends, but those bonus points only dictate which of 12 options you have and the number of other creatures you can have. You can only put the secondary creatures on your friend’s island, so basically is just to get some minor bonuses to be better than your friends.

I can’t say there is really much I liked about the game. Creating monsters is fun, but they are so bland that you really don’t get an emotional attachment to them. And they change shape and size as you evolve them (just pushing points around), so it doesn’t really matter what you pick in the beginning, it will probably change.

Game play is pretty simple also. Click Observe, wait 120 second. Shift things around, rinse, lather, and repeat. Um… yah? In four hours, you can do it again!

There isn’t any gifting in the game, other than planting your creature on a friend’s island. Not exactly exciting and doesn’t encourage the social gaming that others do. I can easily see why Fluffy and my other friends pretty much dropped it after a few days.

2009-11-21

Games, games, games…

Filed under: Games — D. Moonfire @ 16:11

When I got home from work yesterday, I had two packages waiting for me. One was a new keyboard and SATA cable for my computer. I just replaced the DVD burner and found out I grabbed the wrong type (SATA instead of IDE). Instead of trying to return it, I just got the cables needed to set it up (I already had a SATA system) and just plugged it in. The other is the keyboard. I utterly hate keyboard shopping. I know it sounds strange, but after so many years of touch-typing both for writing and programming, I’m very sensitive to keyboard layouts. I struggle without the inverted-T for cursor keys, the 2R3C layout for the home keys and even the location of the backslash character. And I don’t like curved, split, or funny shapes either. Picky, but it makes it really hard to get a good keyboard.

The other is the thing I’ve been waiting for since GenCon: HERO 6E. HERO is the reason I dropped my home-brew systems (Balance and Triumph). Yes, it has some complexity, but it is a great generic system that shares my tenants of gaming. There are very few absolutes (probably the main reason I get frustrated with Exalted is there are too many perfects). It is also flexible. Yes, the numbers sometimes get hard for things like dimensional spaces, but I find that it works for almost every genre I happen to enjoy. Plus, I could easily run other worlds in it, like Fighterytpe’s Itrifore, my Fedran, or even Fluffy’s favorite: a cheerful Changeling game.

While I love HERO, there is something to be said about actually playing a game. I haven’t tried to really find a gaming group here in Iowa since I moved here. College, writing, and barely seeing Fluffy have put a pallor on that, but today, I’m going down to Critical Hits and hopefully doing a round or two of Pathfinder Society games. It is more structured than I really am used to. Most of my life, I’ve played home games with campaigns that lasted years with the same characters. And having all that history built up between the characters. With RPGA and Society games, I don’t get the same impression. It is more like a delve and go on, episodic television instead of integrated plots. You know, the difference between Star Trek verses Babylon 5. I like both, but there is that master plot in B5 that Star Trek just didn’t have. And I feel the same about this game.

But, a game is a game and I want to roll some dice and have some fun.

2009-11-15

Multiclassing

Filed under: Games,Programming,Writing — D. Moonfire @ 17:09

In the last week or so, I found a gaming group that is semi-local to let me at least fill some of my RPG cravings. They play Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons 4e. Not really into 4e, just goes a bit too far into tactical for my own preferences, but I decided to join the Pathfinder games. It looks like most of them are part of the Pathfinder Society (like RPGA), so I joined that just because it seemed to make things easier.

Creating characters, I noticed something. I really like multi-classing. First character concept? Paladin/Monk combat medic. Second? Sorcerer/Rogue. The third and fourth weren’t much better. I know multiple classes in Pathfinder/D&D 3e is not “optimal” for pure survival reasons, but I feel straight-jacketed by specializing.

This seems to be true for real life also. I’m not specialized in my primary profession. I can’t say I know databases, web, or GUI better than others. I’m just a good developer and a fairly decent architect. In my personal life, I keep trying to tell myself to focus on “just writing” or “just programming”, but no matter how much I try, I keep end up wanting to do both.

It isn’t optimal.

I’m not going to say it is wrong. If my own goal was to be a “great writer”, this isn’t the most efficient way of doing it. Same for writing computer games. But, it is also pretty obvious that, at this point in time, it isn’t going to change. So, I’ll be happy with my Writer 4/Programmer 11 for now.

Though, I’ll admit, I do feel a bit of envy for those all those Writer 15 running around.

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